Identificação das principais causas de edemas em carcaças de bovinos de corte

Abstract

The research aimed to identify the main causes of injuries in the carcasses of cattle slaughtered in a slaughterhouse in the municipality of Santa Maria-RS. Data were collected from shipping, transporting, unloading and fasting period of 303 lots of animals from different regions of Rio Grande do Sul, for the April 2011 month. At the slaughter, the bruises were removed and counted according to the location of the body, cushion, loin, front and rib, and the batch of origin. Of the 900 bruises found, 655 (73.8%) were located in the region of the ribcut, 93 (10.3%) in the forequarter, 85 (9.4%) on the loin and 67 (7.4%) in the cushion. It was determined that the main variables that significantly influenced the findings in the carcass were: the type of vehicle used for transporting animals, the capacity of the stable in the period in which the animals were fasting at the slaughterhouse, the people numbers who handled animals at the time of shipment and the cattle truck driver. Thus, we conclude that the losses by injury can occur at any stage of pre-slaughter and there is no specific time to be corrected the defects of handling and because of this, preventive measures should be recommended from training to achieve a good level of animal-welfare.